Team Lead: Isella;
Members: Schlichting, Alexander, Johns-Krull, Stewart
Understanding the formation of planets and the origin of the essential ingredients for life is one of the greatest challenges of modern Astronomy. Planets are ubiquitous in our galaxy and beyond, but the physical processes responsible for their formation remains an outstanding question. And it is still unknown what fraction of these planets might possess suitable conditions for life.
Current evaluations of habitability focus primarily on external conditions (thermal balance with the radiation of the parent star, expected atmospheric pressure given size and mass constraints, etc.). However, more can be learned about the potential habitability of these bodies by evaluating whether they possess the necessary elemental ingredients for life to develop. The process(es) and environmental characteristics involved in planetary formation, and the interaction between planets and their parent star are likely major contributors in determining whether a planet acquires the essential life-supporting elements.
New insights into acquisition of the life-essential elements can be gained by closer study of the places where planets form, namely, the circumstellar disks rotating around young stars (protoplanetary disks).
The research activities included in the first theme of the proposed project are aimed at addressing two fundamental questions:
Where do rocky planets form?
What is the chemical composition of the reservoir material for planet formation?
We will investigate the regions of planet formation in nearby protoplanetary disks and determine the orbital radius and mass of planets in the act of forming. The goal will be to better understand how the lower-mass rocky planets and the chemical diversity of the planet-forming medium vary as a function of radial distance from the parent star. For making these observations, we will use Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). To investigate the chemical composition of volatiles in the planet forming medium, we will also perform imaging of the emission lines of key gaseous molecules and ions (e.g., CO, CS, HCN, CN, HCO, N2H+, H2O).
